Expedition Log: The Korianis Crew

I’ve been dogsitting for my mum and I got so bored I decided to dip my toes into some solo play, because it seems intriguing. Also, I have a giant forest region I need populated, and playing through some solo play to generate content seems like a fun idea.

A hidden side benefit of solo play is I really got to feel hexcrawl procedures working for the first time in play. It was pretty rad, and generated some neat interactions.

The game is using my shitty RPG rules, except I didn’t have the right setting supplement, so I thought up the idea of some foreign Korianite (medieval europe) explorers trying to find their fortune in a vast forest of Ajira (medieval japan / egypt).

I have four PCs. I roll randomly for class, ancestry and equipment, then did a little bit of thinking to figure out how they fit together:

LEOMA the Veteran Fighter - A veteran of one of Orthos’ wars, he is now an old impoverished man. He is feeble (STR 5) and weak (CON 7) and stupid (INT 6). Really the only thing he has going with him is battle experience, giving him a +2 on his spear.

EARDWULF the Networker Rogue - He’s the one that put this whole crew together. His fledgling network affords him one free henchman per level. He’s also the lead navigator, who led them to the forest and knows how to forage. He has one henchman: Stinny.

EGBERT the Tayan Knight - A royal knight of the order Tayan Theras, who’s crazy yellow eyes can see in the dark. Egbert is here searching for “the white tulip,” whatever that means. The knights of Tayan Theras are known to be quite mad.

STANLEY the Bloodmage - A tough figure (STR 17!) with a sizeable brain. He was chased out of town and booked passage on the first ship heading to foreign lands he could. He hopes to grow his magical power and return to town to kill all those who have wronged him.

What follows is a summary of their expeditions through the Ajira-ni forest.

Expedition One (July 1 - July 9)

Korianis Expedition Map

For the first 5 days of travelling south, the gang finds nothing interesting except a body of water. They have no way of crossing it, so they start heading around it and then realise they’re running low on food. They decide to head west and then circle around back to the boat to retrieve more supplies.

On the night of the 5th day, foraging does not go well, and the gang realises they’re low on food. While searching for a good camping ground in the hills, Eardwulf stumbles upon a nest of griffons! Fresh meat, except there are 7 of them, and they aren’t quite asleep yet. The group attempts to see if they can lure one away to be slain, but their attempts fail.

Egbert suggests caving in the entrance, but there isn’t any way they can collapse the solid earthern structure. However, Eardwulf notices that there is a collection of loose boulders held up by nothing but roots inside the cave. If he can sneak in once they fall asleep and knock the rocks loose, they may be able to kill the griffons that way.

The plan doesn’t work when Eardwulf steps on a branch in the lair. The griffons wake and attack, but the gang wins initiative, so they start to flee. However, griffons are faster than humans, so they have to throw food behind them to escape. They end up with less food than they started with. Things aren’t looking good.

The 6th day passes uneventfully. They’re heading back to the boat now at least, but they’ve run out of food. Eardwulf and Egbert go without food, for Leoma is incredibly frail and they fear what Stanley may do if they challenge him when he grabs a ration.

In the middle of the eighth day, the group stumbles across 4 hill giants arguing with each other. Two pairs of giants appear to be arguing over a terribly built shack made of wood and dirt. The gang, weak from hunger, tries to sneak away, but are spotted by a giant. To their surprise, the giant offers them food if they help take out the other pair. Fearing what may happen if they refuse, and realizing their odds aren’t bad with giant allies, they accept.

The fight is brutal and quick, the giants lob stones at one another, losing teeth and bruising eyes. The opposing giants seem to have the upper hand, landing the first blow, until Stanley weaves a spell and causes a cloud of insects to blind one of the giants. The giants take turns pummeling each other until the allied giants stand victorious! The group is rewarded with a deer carcass, which they butcher and eat that night.

The following day, they break through a clearing and return to their boat to re-supply.

This concludes my first Solo Play Experience

I promptly moved on to cooler locations, and using the same characters too, but that was also short lived, quickly usurped by playing through with my boy peter.

A quick summary of the further adventures of the crew:

• They journeyed through the jungle of Chachumtak.
• The found an empty cave
• They found a stone stairway leading down into the forest, which they found to be a dungeon inhabited by strange creatures that could take their shapes!
• They triggered an unfortunate trap and the fighter gotten killed by a snake.
• During their attempt to flee, the paladin and thief lured the minotaur master of the dungeon to attack them.
• The paladin put a mighty fight before dying to a critical gore. The magician got the minotaur down to one hit point before being torn apart.

So they didn’t last too much longer anyway. Not sure whether to feel accomplished or like a failure for TPKing myself.

Though not really a proper sequel, the hexcrawl shenanigans continue in Chachumtak I.